Heh, I’m of the dump the clutch and let the back end break-free on a corner school of roof shoveling.
The roof of my truck is too tall for me to get to it by hand!
If you are complaining about sedan drivers who then are unable to see out of the back, I agree with you to an extent. If you are complaining about SUV drivers like myself who have back glass wipers, I don’t think so Buck-O! Not only do I leave that snow up there, I’ve been know to shovel more up there to keep those following far enough back so that when I see that Gulf Coast driver who never seen snow before sliding sideways through the intersection ahead of me I can slow/stop without worrying about you rear-ending me and punting me out in front of said Gulf Coast driver.
Hint, if the snow blowing off the car in front of you is blowing onto your windshield, you are too close.
I’m with Linoge with this one.
We don’t get much snow here in DFW but when we do most ignoramuses don’t clear their cars.
It is a safety hazard to those behind you. You own the car, clear the car, get a broom or a step ladder if you need to.
This is from a guy who owns 2 SUVs.
and no if the snow from you car is blowing onto my windshield it doesn’t mean I’m too close. I could and often am in the lane next to that car.
Or behind that car at a stop light and get a windshield full when the sudden acceleration clears the roof of snow.
Bob S.,
I’m going to have to respectfully disagree with you.
Unless there is a strong crosswind, snow blowing off the trunk/top of a car is going to stay behind the car, same lane. If you are in the next lane getting stuff on your windshield, that is being thrown by the tires and what are doing in their blind spot?
With good road conditions (wet at worst)snow falling off the top of a semi trailer due to a “jack rabbit start” (with a semi?) will hit the ground in less than a second. Snow falling from the top of a van/SUV to the level of your hood takes less than half a second. What are you, chained to their bumper? Just how close are you following? Two (2) seconds of separation is required, three (3) is recommended and in bad conditions I won’t go with less than four (4).
I have been driving in the white fluffy (gray slushy) stuff for over 30 years. In that time I’ve had one (1) fender-bender (with a guard rail, no damage to the guard rail) and no more than four (4) incidents where the vehicle axis has departed more than 60 degrees from the direction of travel. Around here, among the locals, when the snow falls the accident rate goes down. We realize that conditions are bad and drive accordingly. Four/All Wheel drive doesn’t help you steer or stop any better. ABS doesn’t shorten your stopping distance (actually makes it longer), but it does allow you to steer. The tourists however more than make up our caution and OH! the things I’ve seen committed with rental and out of state vehicles.
Weer’d: So long as that does away with the snow before you get out into main traffic, I have no complaints. Wildman: Unfortunately, the last snarky sentence of your first comment is simply not true – I have perhaps a third the driving experience you claim, and very little of that was actually spent in areas where white stuff was relatively frequent (though I was a passenger in a lot of areas where it was), and even I know that sheets of snow and, worse, ice can cause significant problems for drivers even an appreciable amount of distance behind you. “Half a second” is all good and well for objects that fall without significant air resistance, but for someone who claims 30 years of driving with the white stuff, one would think you would be aware that snow does not exactly meet that description, especially when it comes off in sheets measured in square feet.
Yes, I am especially complaining about anyone who cannot adequately see out of their windows (and that includes all of them, and is regardless of whether or not you have wipers for the windows in question – if you cannot see out of them in their entirety, and you are on the road, you are not being safe), but I am also complaining about those lazy schmucks who cannot be bothered to clear off the roofs of their vehicles and instead choose to pose a navigational hazard for everyone else on the road – for heaven’s sake, even lawyers can identify the hazard and police in multiple states will ticket your happy arse.
In addition to simply obscuring vision (clouds of fine, dry, icy snow billowing off cars last far longer than your pulled-out-your-arse “less than half a second”), snow and ice falling off cars has been known to break/crack windshields, and, if nothing else, it is dumping more frozen material on roads that might have already been cleared, and certainly need nothing else slippery added to their surface.
As for driving habits, I do not know from whence you hail, but I can personally profess that drivers in Eastern Tennessee do not have a frakking clue how to drive in the snow – neither speeds, nor following distances, nor braking times, nor anything else are adjusted for the inclement weather, and I do not know about you, but I would very much prefer if people took a few minutes of their time and reduced the amount of confusion and chaos in situations where other people are already being idiots.
Even discounting the danger posed to people behind you by your snowcap, other problems exist as well, regardless of whether or not you think your windshield wipers are capable of handling it.
Here is a hint: If gos-se is falling off your car, regardless of how it got there or where it is going, you are doing something wrong, period, full-stop, end of story. Bob S.: My favorite are pot holes… Having driven the highways in our areas a bit now, I have started mapping out where the biggest ones are, and on the way home, I had about a half-a-second “oh crap” moment right before a snow-bedecked SUV plowed straight into one. Thankfully, only the back edge of his cap splattered all over my windshield (and I generally follow at about four car-lengths at-speed on the highway), but I can only imagine how messy it would have been if the entire load had shifted.
random quotes
“I am sorry, but I don't feel too much regret since looking at her [Meleanie Hain] smug face made me want to grab her gun and pop a cap in her ass as well.... it would be funny as heck if Hain was shot with her own gun. I am hoping that her husband turned her own gun against her......Most concealed carry idiots make me want to grab their guns and pop a cap in their sorry moronic arses.” by James Charles Michael Bannerman, writing as 'Laci the Dog'
Heh, I’m of the dump the clutch and let the back end break-free on a corner school of roof shoveling.
The roof of my truck is too tall for me to get to it by hand!
If you are complaining about sedan drivers who then are unable to see out of the back, I agree with you to an extent. If you are complaining about SUV drivers like myself who have back glass wipers, I don’t think so Buck-O! Not only do I leave that snow up there, I’ve been know to shovel more up there to keep those following far enough back so that when I see that Gulf Coast driver who never seen snow before sliding sideways through the intersection ahead of me I can slow/stop without worrying about you rear-ending me and punting me out in front of said Gulf Coast driver.
Hint, if the snow blowing off the car in front of you is blowing onto your windshield, you are too close.
I’m with Linoge with this one.
We don’t get much snow here in DFW but when we do most ignoramuses don’t clear their cars.
It is a safety hazard to those behind you. You own the car, clear the car, get a broom or a step ladder if you need to.
This is from a guy who owns 2 SUVs.
and no if the snow from you car is blowing onto my windshield it doesn’t mean I’m too close. I could and often am in the lane next to that car.
Or behind that car at a stop light and get a windshield full when the sudden acceleration clears the roof of snow.
Bob S.,
I’m going to have to respectfully disagree with you.
Unless there is a strong crosswind, snow blowing off the trunk/top of a car is going to stay behind the car, same lane. If you are in the next lane getting stuff on your windshield, that is being thrown by the tires and what are doing in their blind spot?
With good road conditions (wet at worst)snow falling off the top of a semi trailer due to a “jack rabbit start” (with a semi?) will hit the ground in less than a second. Snow falling from the top of a van/SUV to the level of your hood takes less than half a second. What are you, chained to their bumper? Just how close are you following? Two (2) seconds of separation is required, three (3) is recommended and in bad conditions I won’t go with less than four (4).
I have been driving in the white fluffy (gray slushy) stuff for over 30 years. In that time I’ve had one (1) fender-bender (with a guard rail, no damage to the guard rail) and no more than four (4) incidents where the vehicle axis has departed more than 60 degrees from the direction of travel. Around here, among the locals, when the snow falls the accident rate goes down. We realize that conditions are bad and drive accordingly. Four/All Wheel drive doesn’t help you steer or stop any better. ABS doesn’t shorten your stopping distance (actually makes it longer), but it does allow you to steer. The tourists however more than make up our caution and OH! the things I’ve seen committed with rental and out of state vehicles.
Weer’d: So long as that does away with the snow before you get out into main traffic, I have no complaints.
Wildman: Unfortunately, the last snarky sentence of your first comment is simply not true – I have perhaps a third the driving experience you claim, and very little of that was actually spent in areas where white stuff was relatively frequent (though I was a passenger in a lot of areas where it was), and even I know that sheets of snow and, worse, ice can cause significant problems for drivers even an appreciable amount of distance behind you. “Half a second” is all good and well for objects that fall without significant air resistance, but for someone who claims 30 years of driving with the white stuff, one would think you would be aware that snow does not exactly meet that description, especially when it comes off in sheets measured in square feet.
Yes, I am especially complaining about anyone who cannot adequately see out of their windows (and that includes all of them, and is regardless of whether or not you have wipers for the windows in question – if you cannot see out of them in their entirety, and you are on the road, you are not being safe), but I am also complaining about those lazy schmucks who cannot be bothered to clear off the roofs of their vehicles and instead choose to pose a navigational hazard for everyone else on the road – for heaven’s sake, even lawyers can identify the hazard and police in multiple states will ticket your happy arse.
In addition to simply obscuring vision (clouds of fine, dry, icy snow billowing off cars last far longer than your pulled-out-your-arse “less than half a second”), snow and ice falling off cars has been known to break/crack windshields, and, if nothing else, it is dumping more frozen material on roads that might have already been cleared, and certainly need nothing else slippery added to their surface.
As for driving habits, I do not know from whence you hail, but I can personally profess that drivers in Eastern Tennessee do not have a frakking clue how to drive in the snow – neither speeds, nor following distances, nor braking times, nor anything else are adjusted for the inclement weather, and I do not know about you, but I would very much prefer if people took a few minutes of their time and reduced the amount of confusion and chaos in situations where other people are already being idiots.
Even discounting the danger posed to people behind you by your snowcap, other problems exist as well, regardless of whether or not you think your windshield wipers are capable of handling it.
Here is a hint: If gos-se is falling off your car, regardless of how it got there or where it is going, you are doing something wrong, period, full-stop, end of story.
Bob S.: My favorite are pot holes… Having driven the highways in our areas a bit now, I have started mapping out where the biggest ones are, and on the way home, I had about a half-a-second “oh crap” moment right before a snow-bedecked SUV plowed straight into one. Thankfully, only the back edge of his cap splattered all over my windshield (and I generally follow at about four car-lengths at-speed on the highway), but I can only imagine how messy it would have been if the entire load had shifted.